The Mental Highway
	The Psychology Of Dreams <  Previous Contents Next  >

The dreamer is (1) pure Spirit, as it came from God in the first forms of material incarnation, and functioning in humanity as the superconsciousness. (2) Soul, which is the pure Spirit plus the accretions and attritions of countless incarnations in the life stream, clothing it with innumerable experiences and memories and functioning as unconscious or subconscious. (3) Mind, which is pure Spirit plus the elements that make up soul, plus a new power of functioning objectively, called conscious mind.

The conscious mind reasons in at least five ways, induction, deduction, comparison, analysis, synthesis. The subconscious reasons in one way — deduction. The superconscious reasons not at all — it knows. We may inhibit conscious action and the self functions as subconscious, with all the play of deduction, mimicry, simulation and fantasy. In the world of dreams, both conscious and subconscious may be inhibited, then consciousness functions as Spirit knowing everything instantly that it ought to know or wants to know. In this activity we "come to visions and revelations of the Lord." We see an illustration of these various activities in the writing of Paul, who wrote some things by direct inspiration, others in which he was not sure that it was the Mind of the Lord, and still others when he spoke not by revelation but by permission. The consciousness may function in any of these ways as a major element while traces of the others are present.

The dreamer is the conscious mind, functioning through the subconscious, after sleep has inhibited the conscious mind. If the dream contains factors that belong to conscious activity, such as comparison with a former dream, then the inhibition is not perfect and the conscious and subconscious overlap. If the dream contains a vision, a content with some definite meaning and value, the superconscious is overlapping, and the dreamer is drawing on material and information from the purely spiritual realm of being. The act of awaking is merely the self returning to conscious active functioning.

We may know that we are dreaming, but if the conscious is perfectly inhibited, we suspend the faculty of comparison and we have no means of knowing that we were awake a while before. If the inhibition is perfect, we will not remember that we were dreaming when we were asleep. If our level of consciousness rises, so that our subconscious activities overlap consciousness, then some point of association will enable our memory of the waking state to recall the memory of the sleeping state. Complete inhibition of the conscious by hypnotic methods will reveal many dreams, which we never consciously know. A clairvoyant may also know this.

The personality of the self in its superconscious activity is the perfect spiritual character acting in its relation to absolute truth and being. In the subconscious or dream state, the personality is functioning through all the memories and experiences of all past personal experiences, in other words, the "mist of matter." It takes on much of the character of the temporal and the untrue. In the conscious personality, we function by direct action and reaction upon the objective world and exhibiting a side of personality that is of the waking world and for it, which ceases with it. The only real and abiding personality is the spiritual or superconscious soul.

The dream world and its images are not external to the dreamer, but are made up of memories of subconscious activities in the past, and from the impressions received from the conscious mind during waking states and stored up in subconscious memory. We cannot distinguish our dream world because we have no available faculty of comparison. A real, unseen, spiritual world exists, of which the waking world is a material expression or reflection. The dream world is a shadow of one or both, and exists only while the conscious mind is functioning through the subconscious. To the conscious mind, the material or waking world exists only while it functions through the conscious faculties. The spiritual and real world always exists and in it the soul functions continuously. The soul being the real entity, independent of the material, it follows that the conscious mind can and does function in that world despite material things.

Communication from one world to another is possible and is always taking place. In the waking state, we can communicate with the dreamer by becoming very quiet objectively, and becoming subjective. Our subconscious carries the message to that of the dreamer. Conversely, if we go to sleep with the desire or purpose to communicate with someone in the waking world, our message may arise into his consciousness, or come forth when he is in the dream state. By the same law, we can reach the superconscious state and communicate with other superconscious or spiritual beings in the flesh or out of it, and can receive communication from them.

The spiritual world is the only real world. The waking world is the material and imperfect expression of it, while the dream world is but a shadow of this material expression. The waking world is therefore more "real" than the dream world. The existence of either is a matter of conscious experience. To one who never dreamed, the dream world does not exist. Spirit is the highest conceivable ultimate state of being, which is changeless, which we know without reasoning, because it is our basic nature. It is perfectly conceivable that each stage of experience in the infinite possibilities of unfoldment may appear as a world in itself, which in turn becomes only a memory in the Light of a new world of experience and development.

We may remain aware of the fact that we are dreaming because it is possible for the conscious and subconscious to overlap. Sometimes this happens without any intent by the dreamer. The nature of the dream may do it and we will remember it when we awaken. We may do it by watching our progress from the waking to the sleeping state with the effort to stop on the borderland between the two. This takes time to develop, but when once acquired, can give the dream consciousness full sway and can analyze all the elements of the dream state.

By steady training we can consciously be aware of the dream’s nature during the dream state. At first, too much attention to analysis will make the dream fade, or too much attention to the dream will suspend the conscious action and one is sound asleep. Only by extended effort can we reach the borderland and maintain it at will, reveling in all the imagery of the dream world and comparing it with the known facts of the waking world. Following these methods, we can direct our dream toward any end which we may desire, and concerning anything lying within the range of subconscious knowledge.

In the dreamless stages of sleep the only subconscious activity is that which maintains the body’s various routines, so that it does not form any mental images. The conscious element can conceivably enter and be aware of the facts of metabolism, etc., and to direct them; however, it does not take on the nature of a dream.

The creatures inhabiting a dream are a part of the dreamer and have no existence apart from him. The created beings of the waking world are dual, having a real and spiritual identity, which is inseparable from the infinite, and a material form through which it functions. The body acts and reacts upon its material surroundings by the material laws of its existence. It knows and can know nothing. The soul knows its source and, functioning through its superconscious power, communes with its Creator of whose Universal Principles it is the embodiment.

There is an Ultimate Reality, self-determining Being, Omnipresent in every phase of expression, Omnipotent, Omniscient. Everything that appears in any world, whether waking or dreaming, is the result of His action. The means of realization should be acceptable to all religions, creeds, climes and peoples — namely, God is and there is none else. Everything comes from the action of God.

God rules and governs by law and order. The order of God’s creative work is (1) God thought, (2) He called by name that which He thought, (3) He became that which He thought and called by name, and it was good. It is the nature of God to become that which He thinks and calls by name. Everything that appears is the representation of a world of ideas in the Mind of God.

Humanity was a thought before we became thinkers. Humanity is the compound idea of God, the true idea of Life, Love, Truth, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Substance, Intelligence, Principle, and in a word, the embodiment of the principles of Universal Being. Whatever is in God is potentially in us. God has made us in His image and we are partakers of the Divine Nature. If we think God’s thoughts, we set in motion and direct all God’s creative powers to produce in ourselves and in our surroundings all those things we have thought and called by name. If we have the faith to perceive, and the courage to command the available powers, then we fulfill dominion over all things as promised.

The Magna Charta of our mastery is found in Isaiah 45:11, "Concerning My sons and concerning the works of My hands, command ye Me." The secret formula of genius is found in the words of the Christ, "I am among you as one who serves." The epitome of all existence is, "All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s."